Blackbird Fly

The sudden death of her husband turns Merle Bennett's life upside down. She finds herself doing what she least expected, decamping to France for the summer to fix up the ancestral home. The village in southwest France should be idyllic: warm sunshine, vineyards, and walls of golden stone.

The Girl in the Empty Dress: Bennett Sisters Novels, Book 2

Merle Bennett is turning 50, and her four sisters are helping her celebrate by going to France on a walking tour of the Dordogne. But one sister invites along a law colleague whose annoying ways upset what Merle had hoped would be just "wine, women, and walking". When Gillian Sargent, the sixth wheel, finds an injured dog beside the road, the idyllic summer vacation takes a dark and dangerous turn. Why is the dog special? Who is after her? And what will they do to get the dog back?

Give Him the Ooh-La-La: Bennett Sisters, Book 3

One of the Bennett Sisters got engaged at the end of
The Girl in the Empty Dress. Now it's Christmas and time for an engagement party. Merle's French lover arrives just in time and sweeps her off her feet again. But is he really here for the engagement party and the holidays, or does he have a secret agenda?

Beat Slay Love: One Chef's Hunger for Delicious Revenge

Aspiring chef Hannah Wendt has a multitude of talents - prowess in the kitchen and in the bedroom - but also a penchant for disposing of bothersome chefs. Wronged by those who steal her recipes, ridicule her weight, and denigrate her talents, Hannah has turned in her apron as sous chef and food stylist to plow new territory - her overpowering hunger for revenge. Hooked on how tasty payback can be, soon she is bumping off famous chefs who've burned her ego with spectacular culinary flair.

Plan X

It should have been simple, this finding the next-of-kin. But for Officer Cody Byrne, the explosion that injures the Shakespeare professor is more than suspicious. So begins the unraveling of a man's life, a man's secrets, his loves and birthright, as Cody follows his trail to Washington, DC, then London, trying to glean something of his shadowed past from the Renaissance documents he left behind.

The Bluejay Shaman: An Alix Thorssen Mystery

Whoever killed Shiloh Merkin hated her and wanted her dead. Her brother-in-law, Wade, is accused of the murder. An Indian activist and zealous defender of Native Montana lands, despised by Shiloh's New Age women's group, his knife appears to be the murder weapon. But Alix Thorssen, art dealer and forgery expert, knows there is no artistry in slashing a woman's throat, and believes Wade isn't the killer.

Nordic Nights: An Alix Thorssen Mystery

Hank was found standing over the body of visiting Norwegian artist Glasius Dokken. When Hank won't say a word in his own defense, it falls to his step-daughter, Alix Thorssen, to clear him and uncover who actually sent Dokken, the painter of myths, to Valhalla.

The Things We Said Today: Bennett Sisters, Book 4

Another summer, another Bennett Sisters adventure. This time the whole family travels to Scotland for oldest sister Annie's wedding to a handsome Scot. They take over his family hunting lodge in the Highlands for a week. But is Annie, 14 years older than her groom and a confirmed bohemian, ready to give up her independence in her middle 50s?

All Your Pretty Dreams

Just because Jonny Knobel hasn't touched the accordion for years means nothing to his father and his beloved polka band. After years in the city, small-town Minnesota whiplashes Jonny until he runs into the college girls doing field work next door. The mysteriously rude Isabel Yancey, the crew chief, arrives with her own fresh heartache. Can two such different people see eye to eye?

Jump Cut

Seattle reporter Mimi Raynard is having a bad week. Her ex-husband is now her boss at the TV station and wants her head on a platter. When three prostitutes die of a suspicious heroin overdose Mimi gets the story, but in her nervous enthusiasm, manages to bungle it. The narcotics detective on the case tries to help, but both are outfoxed by the buxom intern. Desperate for a new job, Mimi takes a friend's advice and dresses up as a Russian Mafia madam for a resume tape she has no intention of sending out.

Painted Truth: An Alix Thorssen Mystery

Art expert Alix Thorssen is asked to appraise the charred ruins of a friend's local gallery. The tragedy doubles when artist Ray Thornton's body is found among the debris. The death is ruled a suicide; the fire, arson. Case closed. But not for Alix, who doesn't believe the body was Thornton's.

Sweet and Lowdown: Doris Lennox Mysteries 2

In this sequel to One O'clock Jump, featuring Kansas City private detective, Dorie Lennox, it's 1940, FDR is running for a third term, France has fallen, and the Nazis are bombing London. In Kansas City, PI Dorie Lennox and her partner, Amos Haddam, are tailing Thalia Hines, the wayward 21-year-old daughter of a prominent local family.

One O'Clock Jump: A Swing Town Mystery

Halfway around the world, war has begun, but for Dorie Lennox, a newly minted private eye on her first tail, danger is more immediate. The dark streets of Kansas City of 1939 offer swing music, fast cars, gangsters, and the chance to forget about the Depression and her own murky past. But first she must conquer her fears and save a woman on a bridge high above the muddy Missouri. Dorie is thrown into a quickly unraveling scam that offers salvation to few - and misery to plenty - in the high-stakes world of machine politics and desperation deals.